Venetian blind



J.. J. FOGLIO VENETIAN BLIND 2 SHEETSSHEET 1 Filed Jan. 26, 1950 INVENTOR JAMES J. FOG/.10

ATTORNEJ J. J. FOGLIO VENETIAN BLIND April 7, 1953 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Filed Jan. 26, 1950 INVENTOR JAMES .1 FQGL/O ATTORNEY FIG. 7

slats. The rung tape Patented Apr. 7, 1953 STAT ES PATENT OFFICE VENET-IAN BLIND:-

James J; Foglio, New Buchanan. Y.

AppIicationiJanuai-y'ZG, 1950, Serial N01. 140 ,7235

1 Claims;

played for detachably affixing, the longitudinal tapes to the; tiltingibar and? the lowermost bar.

A further object: of: thisainven'tioniis to provide a Venetian blind inwhich;the:laddervtapesasup porting the intermediateslatszarereadily opened t'o' permitremovalofitheintermediateslats-while panying drawings showing one form ofmy-inventi'onby way-ofiillustration;'inwhich:

Figure' lis an elevation, partially in'section and cut away, of? a Venetian. blind accordance with my invention preservingythecontinui y; and usualsappearance, of thelongitudinal/tapes; 7

Still other. objects and advantages: or :the: Venetian blind of. my: inventioniwill become apparent from the: description and the accom- Figured" is a partlallsection :along line 2-4 of Figure: 1;;

I Figure; 31 is'anend view in theidirection of thearrowsidentifyingline- 3--3 of. Figure 1 Figure 4 is a when looking in the; direction of the arrows identifying line 4-4 in Figure 1; Figure 5 is asimilar'view'on urel;

line 5-5 of Fig-r Figure 6' is a perspective view on an enlarged scale of registering rung portions of the ladder tape locked to each other by a slipfastener; and

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the female and maleslip fastener, members before applicatiomto the rung tape portions.

Headboard I, is attached, in any usual manner, to; the, upper frame of a window, and the tilting ban .2 is supported therefrom by a bracket at either end, one bracket including the usual tilting; worm, gear means 3 actua-ble: by the tilting cord: 4.. Pull cords 5 extend through groovesin the head board and over pulleys 6 therein, through openings in the head board, the tilting board and the plurality of slats l, and may readily be raised or lowered by the free terminating loop thereof, shown in the right side portion of Figure 1, with the adjusted height of the blind being maintained by the usual clamping device 8. Laterally of the openings in the slats for the pull cords 5, the tape 9 has a plurality of pairs of mutually registering rung tape portions lo, the pairs being spaced at the desired vertical interval for the slats, for supporting individual portion pairs [0, viewed top view of the elements seen sidepor both to the outer side, of theirespective cord; 7

' In the Venetian-blindot my-invention, the ends "ofthe rung: tape portions mare each-afiixed per? manentlyito-the front, and rear,v portions (again:

as-viewed facing the blind and; window) of the -pe- 9r-. fastener of; any known type may be interposed at some. point other than. the end:

regions of theladder' tapes; ratherthan as: usual in the prior art and as shown, for examplein U. S. Patent 2,547,260 issued to. me on April,3,-1

1951-. Insuchv case, should standard prefabricated- Venetianblind tape be employed, theslats used in the blind made accordingto my invention: will havetobe narrower than usual due to the loss in length of the ladder tapes caused. by the. use:of the usual snap fastener which requires/an, overlap of the severed'ladder'tape ends; andthe number of intermediate slats will: have to be inecreased. for, a given height of window, if a really effective Venetian blind is to result. I overcome: this difficulty in the blindof the instant-invention, by using a slip fastener H which compensatesfor the: rungtape loss of length and, in, given cases; may evenincrease such: length, by inserting, in the rung tapea length of the: fasteneri itself substantially equal to the overlap,

which. would be, required by the use of the. ordinary type of snapr fastener. slip fastener I employ, being essentially an extension of the tape, requires a pull in the length dimension of the tape, whereas snap fasteners require the application of a force atsubstantially right angles to the length dimension of? the tape. to open them. Slip fastener It comprises. a female: member 29 and. amale member 30', the base of the male member being adapted to slide, along the base of therfemale. member in lateral grooves? 31 on the latter andto be locked into, position by the mound 32 centrally the female base registering with a corresponding detent 33 on the male base. The slip fastener members are affixed to the free end regions of the rung tape pairs II) in any known manner, for example by integral side members 35 which are clamped over the fabric of the rungs against the respective fastener member bases. Registration of the mound 32 and the detent 33 on closure of the fastener is assured by so positioning them that they register when the near ends of the grooves 3| on the female strike against a stop 84 on each Furthermore, theside member 35 of the male fastener member. With the use of slip fasteners in regions of the rung tapes other than the rung tape end regions, no foreign parts (usually metal) mar the appearance of the tapes; nor are some of the lengthwise fibers of the tapes 9 cut repeatedly, usually at rather regular intervals, thus resulting in an overall weakening of the tapes 9. Absent the foreign parts, a source of tape discoloration is eliminated, as also of irregular folding or pleating when the shade is completely, or almost completely, raised.

In my Venetian blind, each tape 9 consists, in fact, of two portions, of which each extends the full extended height of the blind, respectively to the front and rear thereof. Each end of such tape portion is affixed to the lowermost bar I2 and the tilting bar 2, respectively, by being slipped edgewise into a groove 15 of an identical fitting l4. Referring to Figures 2 and 5, the fitting 14, having a smooth curved base conforming to the curvature of the tilting bar 2, has a groove l5 parallel the front and rear of the bar and of metal sufiiciently thin and springy to yield when threading the tape end into it edgewise, and to clamp the tape end. within itself when the threading has been completed with sufiicient force to retain the end therein even though there be a pull thereon when running the finger along the tape, as below described, to open the ladder tapes. The lower surface of the fitting M has a fiat portion conforming to the fiat portion of bar 2, from which extend two similar projections Is at equal distances from the fitting center line, the projections I9 forming a groove'il therebetween. The lower surfaces of projections [6 are at a distance from the fiat surface of bar 2 about equal to their own thickness. Groove I! is of sufficient width to permit the cords 5 to pass freely therethrough and has a bottom 18 at such depth that with the tilting bar tilted the maximum possible, there will be no interference with the cords 5. The projections [6 are of such length that when the fitting is attached to a bar, 2 or 12, their tops will be positioned on their respective fitting side of the center line of the narrowest standardized bar for Venetian blinds. The shoulders 19 serve as stops for the plate below described. Each fitting I4 may conveniently be affixed to the rounded portion of the exterior height surface of the bar by any convenient means, for example a screw 20, while on a diagonal therefrom and in the other side of the fitting, a nail hole 2| permits further attachment of the fitting to the fiat top surface of the 8 bar.

From Figures 4 and 5 it will be observed that a total of four identical fittings I4 are required for the front and rear portions of tape 9, a pair of fittings being affixed in front-and-back alignment across the upper surface of each the tilting bar 2 and the lowermost bar l2 for a pair of tape portions. As shown particularly in Figures 3 and 4, a plate 22 having perforated from its surface an integral formed hook 23, is provided with bent-over flanges 24 by which the plate 22 may be slid over the projections l6 of a fitting M. The length of plate 22, as measured from the front to the back of the bar with which used, is such that for the minimum standardized bar width, the ends of the plates will strike the shoulders 19 of the pair of fittings over the projections I6 of which the plate is slid. Nailholes 25, registering with the nailholes 21 in the fittings M for the minimum standardized bar width, are provided in the plate, and will permit the driving of nails therethrough directly into the vbar for the wider standardized bars.

When a person's extended finger is run down the inside of the front portion of each tape 9, or the tapes are pulled apart, the fasteners II are readily opened and the intermediate slats will drop onto the lowermost bar l2. So that the intermediate slats will readily stack, I end each pull cord 5 in a ball chain 26 and hang a metal rod 2'! from the end of the ball chain, the rod having a hole 28 in its lower end region through which the hook 23 passes. To remove the stack of intermediate slats, the rod 21, preferably of a length exceeding the height of the stack, is unhooked from the hook 23, and the stack is then readily removable. The rigidity of rod 2'! prevents the accidental drawing of the now free ends of the cords into the head board, since the pulleys 6 do not permit passage of the rods.

It will be noted that the householder can readily and simply convert the existing prior art Venetian blinds to those of my invention with the advantage of changing the tapes freely, and cleaning or replacing one or more of the intermediate slats with a minimum of difliculty.

What I claim is:

In a Venetian blind, a ladder tape comprising side portions of uniform width, a plurality of equally spaced rung tape portions integrally on the side portions, the rung tape portions on the respective side portions registering with each other, and slip fastener members on each rung tape portion adapted to engage frictionally longitudinally and to connect the registering rung tape portions in pairs. 7

JAMES J. FOGLIO.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,043,501 Wood June 9, 1936 2,111,978 Lawson et al Mar. 22, 1938 2,111,980 Lawson et al Mar. 22, 1938 2,251,363 McGrew Aug. 5, 1941 2,258,647 Haase Oct. 14, 1941 2,405,579 Hunter Aug. 13, 1946 2,457,442 Brent Dec. 28, 1948 2,561,141 Schaefer July 17, 1951 

